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Meet Jackie Saunders
If
someone compares Jackie Saunders’ role as Procurement Services
Director to the role made famous by actress Goldie Hawn as “Private
Benjamin,” the consummate female shopper-turned-military-procurement-ace,
Mrs. Saunders will laugh right along, but make no mistake, Jackie Saunders
takes her responsibilities very seriously.
In supplies/materials and furniture/equipment purchases alone, Memphis City Schools’ budget for this year is more than $27 million, so effectively and efficiently handling bids and purchases for a business as large as the Memphis City Schools is a huge responsibility. Mrs. Saunders must make sure not only that the District is receiving the best value for dollars spent, but also that all purchases for all goods, supplies and contracts for the District’s schools and offices are carried out in a manner that follows all Tennessee State Purchasing laws.
Jackie Saunders has been with the Memphis City Schools for more than 20 years. She was a Buyer in the Procurement Services from 1985 – 89, and Senior Buyer from 1989-2005, when she was named Interim Director. She became Director of Procurement Services in January of this year.
Prior to joining Memphis City Schools, she was a buyer for Baddour, Inc., and for Goldsmith’s (now Macy’s) department store, working most of the year in New York. She earned a degree in Merchandising and Marketing in 1983 from Memphis State University, as well as a Master’s in Educational Administration and Supervision in 1989, graduating with honors and as a member of Kappa Delta Pi Honor Society in Education.
Mrs. Saunders is a member of the National Institute for Supply Management, the Tennessee Association of School Business Officials and the National Intergovernmental Purchasing Association.
Mrs. Saunders, the first woman to become the permanent Director of Procurement Services for MCS, says that she is proud of having the opportunity to work as part of the Superintendent’s team to affect positive and productive changes in the Procurement Division, which has been re-engineered to produce a three-day turn-around in order processing, down from an average of 28 days. In addition, Procurement is working to establish a new E-Procurement system in which all requests for purchases will travel electronically through the system in approval hierarchies for electronic signatures, a system Mrs. Saunders says will improve services to our schools and offices by further speeding up the process for orders.
A native Memphian, Mrs. Saunders is the mother of four sons and is an involved parent who belongs to several parent organizations, such as the PTAs at Cordova Elementary, Cordova Middle and White Station High schools. She also serves as a member of the Parent Advisory Board of the Child Enrichment Center Daycare. She and her husband, Eric Saunders, Network Engineer, MCS Information Technology, are members of Covenant United Methodist Church. She says that in addition to her professional accomplishments, she is proud of raising four sons -- Mason, 15, Chris, 12, Matthew, 6, and Nicholas, 3 – to behave like human beings at the dinner table!
